In the art of maintaining a clean and sanitized living environment, it has been found that certain surfaces benefit from specialized cleaning treatment. For example, hard surfaces, such as tile, linoleum and wood floors, often become contaminated by fluids, which in turn attract dust and debris that adheres to the fluid. In this situation, it may be desirable to apply a cleaning fluid or steam that breaks down the contaminating fluid's grip on the floor. In other cases, dirt and debris simply rests on the hard surface without being adhered thereto, in which case it may be desirable to remove the dirt and debris by using a wet cleaning surface to which the dirt will adhere. In either event, cleaning may be advanced by scrubbing the surface under pressure.
Traditionally, hard surfaces are cleaned using mops or sponges. Using these devices, the mop or sponge is repeatedly soaked in the cleaning fluid (such as water with a chemical disinfectant), applied to the surface, then re-soaked in the fluid to remove the dirt. One significant disadvantage of this operation is the requirement of maintaining a separate container of cleaning fluid. Furthermore, the cleaning fluid becomes more and more contaminated as the mop or sponge is re-soaked, which reduces the effectiveness of the cleaning operation.
Various cleaning devices have been proposed and introduced to make hard surface cleaning easier and more effective. One such system simply comprises a wand with a planar, rectangular cleaning head to which disposable cleaning cloths can be applied. The cleaning cloths may be dry, given electrostatic properties, or imbued with cleaning chemicals. The cleaning head in such devices comprises a generally flat working surface made of plastic or relatively rigid flexible rubber or synthetic material. A typical device of this nature is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,290, which is incorporated herein by reference. Other hard surface cleaners also include a source of steam or heated liquid, such as the devices represented by the “STEAM MOP” available from Bissell Homecare, Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich.; the “DSS50 STEAM MOP” available from Delonghi America of Saddle Brook, N.J.; and the “ENVIRO-STEAMER” available from The Eureka Company of Bloomington, Ill. One variation of these steam mops includes a vacuum that works with the cleaning head to pick up small debris. An example of this variation is found in the “VAC ‘N’ MOP” device available from Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. These devices all suffer from being relatively rigid, which limits their ability to clean around contoured surfaces and into cracks and grout lines between tiles.
Still other proposed cleaning devices do away with the rigid cleaning head and replace it with a compressible open-cell foam cleaning head that is selectively covered by disposable cleaning cloths. One such device is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/806,310 (U.S. Publication No. 2004/0177863), which is also incorporated herein by reference. These devices appear to attempt to simulate the flexibility of conventional mop heads, but are expected to suffer from many of the same difficulties of conventional sponge cleaners. For example, if the open-cell foam becomes saturated with fluid, the device's weight can increase to the point where handling it becomes difficult, and it may inconveniently exude retained fluids when compressed. It is also believed that the foam underlying structure of this device may be subject to local compression at the point of contact with the cleaned surface, which may reduce the overall surface area of the device and cause excessive looseness of the covering cleaning cloth. Such foam structures also tend to flex laterally when a scrubbing motion is applied to them, and, if the amplitude of the motion is not great enough, this flexing effectively prevents the scrubbing motion from being transmitted to the surface being cleaned.
While these and other known hard surface cleaning systems may be somewhat effective, there still exists a need to provide a hard surface cleaning system that can provide better cleaning and disinfecting performance, while maintaining the user's expectations for convenience and ease of use.